Computerworld — The Mac and iPhone developer that's been running the tr.im URL-shortening service called it quits Sunday, saying it was shutting down the service after it failed to find a buyer.

Slideshow: Twitter Tips: Five Best Apps to Manage a Company Account
Twitter Bible: Everything You Need To Know About Twitter

Nambu Network, a small British Columbia-based developer, has also stopped development of its Twitter and FriendFeed clients for Mac OS X and the iPhone.

"We're accepting the realities and moving on," said Eric Woodward, the president of Nambu, in an interview late Sunday night.

Tr.im, which competed with other services such as bit.ly and tiny.url, converted conventional URLs into shortened strings that redirected users to the original destination. The services are accessed by Twitter users to add links to their tweets, which are limited to 140 characters.

Woodward said Nambu approached several possible buyers, but failed to get a nibble. "I tried that with selected companies that would have a use for it, and no one wanted to pay anything for it, so I decided to just terminate the project."

Users worried that links they'd built with tr.im would suddenly lead nowhere, but Woodward has promised to continue to redirect all tr.im links until at least Dec. 31. "That deadline could be extended, if necessary," he said. "I will revisit it in the fall if no one takes over tr.im this week. We want to do the right thing."

As of Sunday, tr.im is not accepting any new URL shortening requests. "Tr.im is now in the process of discontinuing service, effective immediately," a message on tr.im reads.

"A lot of people are getting worked up over nothing," Woodward said about the tr.im users who worried about dead links. "Other than a few bloggers, almost all of them are using tr.im only on Twitter." For its part, Twitter limits the tweet history that users can access, typically to a six-to-12-month span for most users, and even shorter, around six months, for high-volume users, said Woodward. By the time tr.im stops redirecting links, "this will be long forgotten," he said.

Nambu did not announce on its Web site whether it will also discontinue Nambu and Nambu Touch, its Twitter/FriendFeed clients for the Mac and iPhone, respectively, but Woodward said that move was "very likely." It had previously halted development on the software.

He laid most of the blame for tr.im's demise on Twitter, which made bit.ly its default shortening service last May. "They're the default, and even if we're better, it won't matter, so what's the point?" he said. "As soon as bit.ly was made the default, the game was over."

Continue Reading